Britain's most prolific church lead theft gang jailed

Britain’s most prolific church lead thieves have been jailed for a total of
more than 20 years after they left the Church of England with a £1 million
repair bill.

The gang, based in the cathedral city of Lincoln, targeted 15 churches in Lincolnshire, three in Leicestershire and two in Nottinghamshire, although police believe they were also responsible for other raidsPhoto: ALAMY

The gang of six Lithuanian men struck at 20 churches across three counties, ripping the valuable lead off the roofs and throwing it to the ground, wrecking gravestones and monuments below in the process.

In some cases their thefts were not discovered for some time, allowing rainwater to enter the churches and cause even more damage.

Lincoln Crown Court heard that the crime became so common that the Church of England’s insurer began restricting compensation for lead theft to £5,000 per church and allowing only one claim per year.

The gang made nearly £70,000 from selling the stolen metal over a nine-month period last year, but the repairing the damage to the sacred buildings will cost more than 14 times that amount.

Stephen Lowne, prosecuting, said: “The value of the lead was but a small proportion of the cost inflicted upon the churches concerned.

“These churches were fairly isolated and some of them did not have houses nearby. In some cases it was some time before the thefts were discovered allowing the ingress of rainwater. Extensive infrastructure damage was caused to some of the churches.”

The gang, based in the cathedral city of Lincoln, targeted 15 churches in Lincolnshire, three in Leicestershire and two in Nottinghamshire, although police believe they were also responsible for other raids.

They were only caught after police stopped a vehicle laden with stolen lead on the A46 near Lincoln on August 25 last year.

Since their arrests, the number of thefts from churches in Lincolnshire has dropped dramatically, falling from 186 in 2011 to 19 so far thus year.

Andrius Cereska, 30, Audrius Kvedavas, 30, and Tadas Andruska, 36, all admitted conspiring to steal lead belonging to the Church of England between January and September 2011 and were each jailed for four years.

Vidas Andruska, 34, was found guilty of the same charge after a trial and was jailed for seven years.

Vitalijus Vilkys, 27, admitted handling stolen lead and was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and 180 hours community punishment.

Nerijus Razma, 23, pleaded guilty to a single charge of theft and was jailed for 22 months.

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Heath told the gang: "These thefts caused serious financial consequences. The overall cost to the 20 churches, I am told, is in the region of £1million.

"It is a great deal of money, it is very important and should not be underestimated the distress felt by Christians at the desecration of their sacred places of divine worship.

"You lot could not care less about those feelings. All you were interested in was stealing lead, weighing it in, and making money."

The rising price paid for scrap metals has resulted in more thieves targeting historic buildings.

Between 2000 and 2004 there were just 20 thefts of lead a year from churches across the country, but between 2007 and 2011 there were more than 14,000 cases reported at a cost of £32 million.

Detective Inspector Keith Blakey, of Lincolnshire Police, who led the investigation, said: “The convictions and jail terms represented the biggest success in the fight against heritage crime in Britain to date.

“These thieves targeted some of the most important heritage sites in the heart of our rural communities, causing huge amounts of damage to religious buildings and leading to a great deal of upset among congregations.”